As Senior Manager, Content Marketing & Social Media at LinkedIn, Jason Miller is responsible for leading the content and social media marketing efforts for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. (Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank client)

Not only is Jason an avid fan of 80’s rock and roll, but he’s a marketing rockstar by any definition – with a digital marketing “catalog” that would make any marketer envious.

I can’t count how many times I’ve had discussions with industry thought leaders about creative content and high impact social where Jason’s name was volunteered to me as a go-to resource for best practices in action. But that’s no surprise, as our history with Jason goes way back.

One of the truly great things about working at TopRank Marketing are our clients. On a daily basis we get to connect with and solve marketing problems with some of the smartest marketers on the web.

Take for example, Amy Higgins, an ex-Googler that is now the Content and Social Media Manager for Concur SMB. Concur is an automated expense tracking solution that is growing by leaps and bounds. Amy is super smart, goal and customer focused, very nice to work with and highly networked.

While I could talk about the successful engagement we’re having with Amy and Concur, this interview will instead focus on Amy and her unique and valuable insights as an accomplished content and social media marketer. We need more Amys in our world!

Successful mobile marketing is all about context. A study by Nielsen and Google found that “in the moment” searches are by far the most popular with 85% of smartphone users looking for local information and 81% following up to take action.

But what kind of content makes sense on a mobile device vs. the content marketing being published online? What effect does mobile content have on creating compelling customer experiences and how does mobile fit with other online marketing efforts like SEO, social and ads?

Does your business utilize Vine for micro-content creation? The nascent video social network may not seem like a business-friendly target for social marketing, but there are several opportunities for engagement and retention within it. We may be conditioned to use Instagram or YouTube to tell longer video stories, but Vine’s six-second limit forces marketers to truly be creative with their time.

Vine is inherently mobile – they may have recently added a Windows client, but its foundation stems from mobile devices. That itself presents a unique opportunity for brands. Spalding noted that content created on Vine is instantaneous, spontaneous, and quickly shareable. Add the connection with Twitter, and you have a large audience at the ready.

When you think of your brand’s online voice, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is embodied by the people running your social media accounts, or by the marketing professionals that craft content for your website. In any case, your online brand goes far beyond the logo – and it needs to be nurtured with a robust content marketing strategy.

Digital strategist Luvvie Ajayi used her NMX session to stress the importance of identifying and optimizing brand voice and reputation. Businesses that don’t tend to their online identities risk appearing isolated and disconnected from their audiences.

The process for building or repairing an organization’s online identity begins with an analysis of the current situation: How are people talking about your brand now?

Uh oh. The apocalypse is coming. It’s like impending doom, lurking closer and closer, threatening to take us down. What’s even worse is that we’re bringing it upon ourselves.

But there is still hope for survival. We can draw our proverbial swords, channel our inner hero and fight back. In her NMX session, Social Media Explorer’s Tamsen Webster taught how with The Content Apocalypse Survival Guide: How to Keep Your Content Alive and Kicking in 2014.

I thought this talk was about content. I never imagined what happened next.

Crap content and hoax headlines are starting to take over. They’re even being picked up by big media. You know the kind, headlines just to get the click. They’re zombies. We have to stop them before they kill us. Everyone is content marketing and so many are creating content just to get views without anything of value to the content. Readers are starting to get distrustful of what we’re offering.

Everyone wants to be valued for their insights, and today’s content marketing-fueled age presents multiple opportunities for people to become influencers. I covered how to crowdsource these influencers in an earlier post, but what if you wanted to become one yourself? What does it mean to be an influencer? How do you reach a point where people in your industry are clamoring for your perspective? Finally, how do you build your business from such influence?

It’s not as difficult as you think, and it all revolves around efficient content marketing and re-purposing. Serial entrepreneur Chris Ducker outlined the process in an NMX super session, charting the path for people to build their influence.

Ducker, author of The New Business Manifesto, presented a plan for entrepreneurs to build personal/brand influence with content marketing, eventually seeking to launch a business from that attention.

When was the last time your checked your mobile device? Ten seconds ago? A minute? An hour? (Wow, you have strong willpower.) Whatever the case, you know that mobile is already a significant influence in our lives. For businesses, it’s fast becoming a necessity for content marketing: 57 percent of mobile users wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile website.

However, creating an effective mobile content strategy involves more than repurposing desktop content to fit on a smaller screen. The magic formula, according to MobileMixed podcast host Greg Hickman, involves a restructuring of control between businesses and customers.

Leveraging your audience for blog post ideas is common practice in content marketing, and it can generate unique ideas from a customer-side perspective. But what does it take to use crowdsourcing as a tool for generating influence? Brands frequently target thought leaders to help amplify their content, but what is the best way to collect these resources?

Dino Dogan, founder of influencer marketing service Triberr, proclaimed a new age of crowdsourcing influence at his NMX content marketing super session. Dogan summarized his perspective with a simple question for brands: If your customers doesn’t know the brand, why would they trust its assessment of itself?

Over the past 10 years of blogging, TopRank Online Marketing’s Lee Odden has learned a lot. In his New Media Expo 2014 keynote address to full room with standing room only, Lee talked about the 10 lessons he learned in 10 years and over 3,500 blog posts.

1. Stand For Something Specific

If you’re trying to be all things to all people, you’re competing with all companies in all spaces and yourself. That’s a lot to try to outrank! Ask yourself: what is the one thing I want to be known for? Be specific and make it easy for others to understand what you’re all about.

Each of the things you want to be known for can have it’s own spoke, own content plans, and each their own channels for distribution. After all, specificity rules when it comes to search and social!

Over the past 12 months there have been a wide variety of eBooks published about every topic in the digital marketing mix from the newest mobile marketing strategies to better use of big data to the standards like content marketing, social media, online advertising, email marketing and digital public relations.

As 2013 winds down, it can be really useful to review some of the better in-depth resources on best practices and thought leadership. This post will highlight 11 of the eBooks and reports that I’ve been involved with that I think you’ll find useful. As our content marketing business continues to grow, the body of resources and projects we get to work with is growing as well – why not share?

Early adopters of mobile technology in their digital marketing mix have been experiencing great results by providing convenient methods for customers and prospects to find, consume and act on brand information. Mobile commerce success is here too: According to IBM, 25.8% of total online sales for Thanksgiving, and 21.8% for Black Friday were via mobile.

As companies discover innovative uses of mobile technology for marketing and communications, they can help differentiate their services, reinforce corporate culture, and build long-term customer loyalty.

With growing demand as a content delivery and customer experience channel, mobile applications represent a substantial digital and content marketing opportunity for brands. Mobile is now 28% of all web traffic and the smart money is on those companies and organizations that can attract, engage and convert through the creative content opportunities mobile apps provide.